*****
A month after taking on the Man down at Redfern's block, Planning Minister Frank Sartor has apparently lost his nerve.
The Lord Mayor turned Minister for Lord Mayors turned to water when grilled on radio about why the Hungry Mile was left off the list for proposed names for the East Darling Harbour development.
Sartor, quite uncharacteristically, said the matter was out of his hands.
"I was not on the panel, I was not - the Government nor I were part of this process, we just set up the process," Diamond Frank Sartor said.
"The view of the panel I think was and the view of the staff that have advised me - the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority - is that it would be better to name a street the Hungry Mile rather than a suburb."
It was a strange statement from a man who has been given Sim City-like powers over planning in NSW.
You wouldn't think a suburb name would be a problem.
So now instead of a name that invokes the history of the area we have a list that stretches from the yawn-worthy to the snooze-worthy.
The Toolshed's particular favourite is "Waratah Bay".
The Waratah is a flower that invokes passion in every New South Welshman whenever they try to understand the rules of Rugby Union.
Trouble is, I doubt most people from Sydney have ever seen a Waratah - at least in the wild.
It could well be that our state flower might be as mythological as Frank's lack of sway on the issue.
Something that ain't myth, however, is the hardship the people on the wharves went through and the fight they put up to get the working conditions the rest of us enjoy today.
Zu Zhihong, 49, became the latest victim of Immigration Minister Amanada Vanstone's plan to cut Australian earnings, when he was deserted by Lakeside Packaging after breaking both wrists at its Campbellfield factory.
A desperate Zu Zhihong contacted the AMWU after the company marked him for deportation.
He was still thousands of dollars short of earning the $27,000 he had been slugged in Shanghai for one of the federal government's controversial Section 457 visas.
Vanstone claims "skilled immigrants" get a minimum of $41,000 a year but Zhihong's wages slips show he was receiving just $572 gross a week - a little over $29,000 a year.
His papers reveal he was contracted to work 45 hours for that money.
Zhihong began work in Australia on November 13, 2005. If he got to keep every after tax cent he earned he would have had to have worked until December, this year, just to pay off his visa.
But, on April 4, he fell five metres from a ladder and found himself in Epping Hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken right wrist.
Because he had no income and no work cover, he returned to Lakeside two days later.
"On June 30, when I was using the electric drill to drill a hole in the metal, because I had hardly any use of my right hand, I then broke my left wrist," he said in a statement.
"I was taken to Epping Hospital again where they plastered my left wrist."
He had a doctor's certificate, declaring him unfit for work until September 22, but on August 2, the company stopped his pay and on August 21 it terminated him and informed him, in writing, he would be deported within 28 days.
Under Victorian state law it is illegal to sack a person on legitimate sick leave but, under federal immigration law, 457 visa holders are deported if they do not have a sponsoring employer for 28 days.
Zhihong approached the AMWU after publicity of its support for countryman, Jack Zhiang, after he was ripped off by a Melbourne print shop.
AMWU official, Jim Reid, labelled the treatment of Section 457 workers a "national disgrace".
"How are we going to get this guy another job?" Reid asked. "When I met him, last Friday, he had a brace on one arm and a plaster on the other.
"He has to have an operation but the company has never submitted a work cover claim.
"He's stuck. He has no money, no wages, no sick leave and no work cover. His employer has washed his hands of him.
"Too many employers are ripping these workers off and the government does nothing.
"By doing nothing, it is encouraging their behaviour.
Reid said the AMWU is preparing work cover and unlawful dismissal claims for Zhihong and will try to make sure he is allowed to stay long enough to get alternative employment.
Zhihong says three countrymen, on 457 visas, are still employed at Lakeside Packaging.
Melbourne's The Age newspaper has quoted Lakeside Packaging boss, Meno Najdovski, defending the treatment of Zhihong.
Najdovski accused the Chinaman of lying, being lazy and turning up late for work.
"We've got proof there is nothing wrong with Fu," Najdovski said. "Fu should not be here, he should be back at home."
The accusations were levelled by a Brisbane man who retaliated by forming a Workers Civil Rights Committee.
The committee's inaugural public meeting drew more than 500 supporters to the city's Irish Club, last Friday, to hear speakers denounce the Howard Government's assault on human rights.
Former corporate lawyer, Julian Burnside, CFMEU national secretary, Dave Noonan, and Griffith University Professor, David Peetz, addressed the rally.
The committee will provide solidarity to workers under attack from draconian new laws, organise "community pickets", and promote a civil rights agenda.
Bulders Labourers Union organiser, Bob Carnegie, was a driving force behind its establishment.
"The arrowhead of the attack on Australian civil rights is the Howard Government's campaign against trade union members," Carnegie said.
"That's why we have the support of lawyers and many people outside the organised labour movement.
"When workers are under these attacks our committee will run community protests on their behalf. They can sue us for all they want and they will get four fifths of bugger all."
Carnegie said "outrageous" Building Industry Commission behaviour highlighted the need for a broad response.
He accused Commission officers, in Brisbane, of grilling a six-year-old child about his father's union activities, and of standing over a sub-contractor to prevent a man getting a job.
Carnegies said the first incident occurred, last month, when a union activist took personal leave to care for his ill six-year-old.
Two male Commission officers arrived on the family's southern Brisbane doorstep the same afternoon and proceeded to quiz the youngster about his health and how long his father had been home.
"They put the questions to the kid before approaching our member," Carnegies said. "When they approached our member they were told he wanted union representation and show the door."
Carnegie said the other event involved him, personally, after a delegate asked if he knew of any work that might be available for a relation.
Carnegie said he approached a "reputable" sub-contractor and was stunned when the employer rang back to say he had been visited by Commission officers who wanted to know if he was being "stood over" to give employment to a union member.
"The subbie got spooked, understandably, and decided not to employ a decent human being who needed a job," Carnegie said.
Carnegie confronted the Commission, in person, about that incident and said they refused to offer a defence.
Justice Tony North lashed sections of Howard's Building Industry legislation while tossing out another batch of prosecutions served up by the Prime Minister's controversial Building Industry Commission.
He dismissed charges against two CFMEU officials and builder B&P Caelli, arising from the 2003 death of a Shepparton building worker.
The Building Industry Commission launched its prosecutions in response to long-standing Victorian building industry policy that sees colleagues stop work to raise funds for bereaved families, and carry out safety inspections, following workplace deaths.
The Commission labelled the response to the 2003 death an illegal strike. It charged B&P Caelli with paying strike pay, and the unionists with demanding it.
"If penalties are imposed on employers who pay workers for stoppages which reasonable people would see as understandable and justified ... the law itself will be seen to be out of step with reasonable community expectations," Justice North said.
CFMEU legal officer, Jesse Madisson, hailed North's decision as a victory for decency.
"The judge said what any decent human being would say in these circumstances," Madisson said. "That where there is a death in an industry, other people would show their concern.
"Basically, he said fines in that situation would bring the law into disrepute.
"It is a strange view of justice, to spend taxpayers' money on QCs to chase convictions against people who raise money for widows and kids."
The multi-national abandoned negotiations when it couldn't get its own way on clawbacks, and hit employees with AWAs.
The documents were delivered to 15 maintenance trades people at the company's Asquith plant, last Tuesday.
Currently, Wrigleys operates under two collective agreements, with around 80 process workers still to begin negotiations.
AMWU official, Michelle Burgess, said staff were "stunned" because the strategy was a major change in approach from a company that had traditionally sought co-operation.
"They were an old-style American company that spoke of staff as associates rather than workers or employees," she said.
"They had a culture of co-operation but that's gone out the window under the new workplace laws.
"It's a huge weapon in the employers' arsenal. They demand cutbacks and, if people don't agree, they use AWAs to force the issue and that's what John Howard designed them for.
Wrigleys produced the AWAs after three months of negotiations at which it didn't deviate from its clawback agenda.
"They say they need to reduce costs to say competitive but they don't have any competitors in Australia - they control the market," Burgess said.
Maintenance workers are meeting with the union to finalise their response.
Supporters of Radio Rentals technicians, locked out for a month in a bid to starve them onto income-slashing AWAs, will protest outside the homes of company directors.
Footpath community barbecues will be held at 2 Mackillof Rd, Mitcham, South Australia; 6 Braeside St, Wahroonga, NSW; and 4 Florence St, Brighton East, Victoria.
Respectively, those premises are occupied by Radio Rentals company secretary, Barry Walker, and fellow directors, Gavin Hancock and Christopher Riordan.
AMWU national official, Glenn Thompson, said the barbecues would be a "peaceful" means of drawing attention to individuals who hoped to profit from the aggressive use of John Howard's IR laws.
Radio Rentals became a cause celebre for the extreme Right when it broke off collective negotiations with staff and sacked three union activists, including a delegate with 17 years' service.
Because it employs less than 100 people at its Prospect, Adelaide, store, WorkChoices denies anyone the right to launch an unjustified dismissal action.
With the activists out of the way, Radio Rentals hit remaining technicians with non-negotiable AWAs that would cut their incomes.
When technicians imposed a four-hour weekly protest stoppage, after winning the first WorkChoices industrial action ballot in South Australia, Radio Rentals locked them out for a month.
Last week, the company, represented by law firm Minter Ellison that helped Howard draw up his legislation, launched a bid in the Industrial Relations Commission for return to work orders.
The move, labelled "bizarre" by Thompson, dragged out for more than 24 hours, at first by video link to a Perth-based Commissioner, then face-to-face after he flew to Adelaide.
"It was a bizarre effort to stop a community protest," Thompson said. "The fact is, we are not taking any industrial action, we have been locked out for a month."
Eventually, the company withdrew its application.
Thompson says Radio Rentals knows it is in trouble in the court of public opinion.
"After the Commission hearing they came to us and asked us to call off the protest. We agreed, on condition that everyone went back to the status quo which would have meant reinstating our activists and returning to negotiations.
"They refused and the protest went ahead. The support for the technicians was overwhelming," Thompson said.
More than 300 people gathered outside the store and thousands of dollars were raised.
The South Australian Transport Workers and Nurses Unions both wrote out $5000 cheques that will go into a fund to ensure technicians can keep feeding their families.
Sixteen technicians are locked out and another five, who have refused to sign AWAs, are still inside, on light duties, because they can't be dumped while they are on rehabilitation programs.
The plight of Radio Rentals workers has moved the ALP to promise to allow workers a vote on the type of agreement they will be covered by, if it wins office next year.
The new policy, announced by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, would allow workers to take their case to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission if their boss refuses to negotiate collectively.
The Commission would determine whether or not a majority of affected workers wanted to bargain collectively.
If it was convinced a majority existed, it would have the power to order the employer to negotiate.
"If a majority want a collective agreement, they can have it," Beazley said. "If a majority don't, they shouldn't. That's a fair system."
Donations to support Radio Rentals staff can be made at any branch of the National Australia Bank.
The BSB Number is: 082-057
The Account Number is: 86-239-3418
The report 'A Fair Go At Work', based on a high-level international fact finding tour, earlier this year, recommends a system based on good faith collective bargaining with the onus on employers to prove this is not what the majority want.
And where a dispute emerges, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission would be empowered to order a ballot where employers resist union involvement.
The IARC would have the power to determine the will of the majority, by petition, workplace resolution or, as a last resort, through a secret ballot.
Rejecting the US model of up-front recognition ballots, where unions must win 50 per cent support to even get in the door, unions would maintain the right to represent members regardless of density.
"In short, ballots should be a last resort," delegation member and Unions NSW assistant secretary Mark Lennon told Workers Online.
In contrast, US laws require a majority of workers to vote before a union comes to the negotiating table, deny members the right to be represented.
"What you would find is that battlegrounds would not be n on-union wo0rkplace who want a collective deal, bust established sites where union-busters would attempt to purge the workplace of the collective" Lennon says.
Another key element of the plan is good faith bargaining - the union proposal would no longer allow employers to lock out workers and refuse to offer anything other than individual contracts.
"If a majority of workers want a collective agreement the law should require their employer to respect that choice," ACTU secretary Greg Combet says.
"If, as John Howard and his big-business backers assert, workers don't want collective agreements, let the workers themselves have a say in that choice.
"In a free and democratic society the views of all organisations including unions, and ultimately the views of citizens themselves, must be properly considered - something that is not happening in Australia."
The proposal will be debated at the forthcoming ACTU Congress in late October before becoming ACTU policy.
As Coalition MPs get ready to vote on legislation enabling the sale; unions, policy holders and other activists will step up their opposition.
According to CPSU spokesman Stephen Jones it would be "reckless" for politicians to vote on enabling legislation without knowing the form or the timing of the sale.
"Deferring a public float until after T3 does nothing to change the Federal Government's plan to push through legislation to privatise Medibank next month," Jones said.
"That leaves Medibank Private members and staff in limbo. And it does nothing to relieve community concerns about upward pressure on premiums. Once this legislation is passed the Government will be free to push the sale through when they think it is politically expedient."
Private health insurance industry experts, consumer groups, the AMA, and Chronic Illness Alliance, have all opposed Government claims that the Medibank sale will lower premiums through increased competition and efficiency.
"Even Medibank - in a 1996 Productivity Commission inquiry - has admitted the interests of members are best served when funds "view their members as 'shareholders' for whom the delivery of lower prices is a dividend," said Jones
Recent opinion polls indicate strong opposition to the sale of Medibank.
The Save Medibank alliance has begun lobbying Government MPs and Senators outlining concerns and will campaign on the issue in marginal seats.
Contact the Alliance at: http://www.savemedibank.net.au
The Kevin Andrews-controlled office confirmed, last week, it had seized the Western Australian builder's records.
But the action came more than a year after Western Australian unions, spearheaded by the CFMEU, blew the whistle on Hanssen's treatment of dozens of workers imported under four-year guest labour visas.
And it came three months after the builder agreed to upgrade pay rates and to provide holiday, redundancy and sick leave entitlements.
Hanssen builds apartments for the top-end of Perth's residential market.
He runs an aggressively non-union operation that undercuts going industry rates by hundreds of dollars a week.
He used labour hire to keep construction workers at arms length from his company then moved to an independent contracting arrangement, lashed by unions as a "sham".
Hanssen bolstered those strategies by hiring in labour from the Philippines, and other Asian countries, under the federal government's controversial Section 457 program.
The belated OWS investigation follows accusations that the WorkChoices-created body is a propaganda unit for federal government.
OWS "investigations" of workers who appeared in the ACTU's anti-WorkChoices campaign were leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
In every instance, the Office "found" against workers, although, in at least three cases, it didn't even speak to the people involved.
It green-lighted the Cowra Abattoir's action in sacking staff on binding contracts and then re-hiring them at substantially reduced rates.
The employer who won Office endorsement in that case is now being investigated by the corporate watchdog after administrators alleged millions of dollars had been moved to associated companies before the abattoir fell over.
The OWS still refuses to answer specific questions about its roles and responsibilities put by Workers Online, in writing, nearly two months ago.
But joy was in short supply the day she received an AWA from her boss at Impact Services - a group home for high-needs kids in Blacktown - with directions to sign and return it.
"There was no mention of any sort of negotiation, it was just handed out to all the staff," she says. "I read through it and tried to compare it to the SACS (Social and Community Services) Award but it didn't stack up."
Large contacted the Australian Services Union in July to help decipher the document.
The AWA offered by Impact significantly undercut award conditions in several areas, says ASU secretary Sally McManus.
It offered no provision for annual incremental wage increases - unlike the award, which provides for increases over the next three years - and there was a complete reworking of shift penalties and annual leave loadings.
"It would have meant significant reductions in people's take-home wages," McManus said.
After discussions with Impact employees, union representatives held a meeting with management during which they agreed to withdraw the AWA.
"Nobody wanted to sign an agreement which undercut their conditions, they were quite happy with the award. But our members didn't feel the situation would be resolved by simply refusing to sign, they wanted the AWA withdrawn," McManus said.
Large, who attended the meeting with management to represent staff, is proud of her role in beating the AWA.
"It was very messy but everyone stuck together and we had a big win. I want to let other people know they can be supported by the union and they don't have to put up with this."
But victory came at a cost to Large. Employed as a casual, she had regularly been working 76 hours a fortnight.
After she involved the union in the AWA dispute her hours were gradually cut back to just two per fortnight, forcing her to find a new job.
"I can't afford to be without a job, but I've found new employment and I'm very happy where I am."
Progressive Enterprises shut its gates after workers struck for 48-hours four weeks ago.
The company had bypassed the union and offered the workers a 3.5 per cent pay increase.
Workers had wanted a national collective agreement with an eight per cent increase.
The Maritime Unions of Australia has pledged its support to the locked out workers.
MUA federal secretary Paddy Crumlin said it was outrageous a company that paid its chief executive officer $8 million a year was treating its staff this way.
"It's obscene company executives pocket multi-million dollar salaries, while working families have to struggle to keep their heads above water," Crumlin said.
More than $170,000 in donations to the workers' welfare fund have been received.
One way to donate is through the Maritime Union of New Zealand website: www.munz.org.nz
People wanting to send an email to the company can visit: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=140
Northern Beaches resident David Mulligan said while he regretted the loss of jobs, tworkers were not "flexible" enough to keep his company afloat.
"Cowra Abattoir needed and expected flexibility from the unions to ensure its business and most jobs would survive the challenges of the drought and the increased cost of transport," he said.
However, according to administrators, Mulligan had his own ideas about flexibility.
"Records of the company show an amount of $1,775,358 owed by [Mulligan's other company] PD Mulligan," the report said.
The closure has left a question mark over the workers entitlements, estimated to be worth $2.8 million.
The ACTU has called for an investigation into potential breaches of corporate law, and has taken a swipe at the Federal Government's Office of Workplace Services.
"[Mulligan] sacked the 27 workers and offered 20 of them a job back with a 30 per cent pay cut, and the Office of Workplace Services was sent in to have a look at the circumstances and duly found that it was all legal and ridgy didge, under the IR laws of course, to sack people and offer 'em their job back with a pay cut," ACTU secretary Greg Combet said.
"But of course there's a bigger picture to this, and the bigger picture we now see potentially involves breaches of the Corporations Law."
An Office of Workplace Services report leaked to a the Daily Telegraph in July found Cowra's attempt to sack the workforce and re-hire them on lower wages was legal.
Prime Minister John Howard deflected questions over Cowra's finances, saying it was a matter for Australia's corporate watchdog, ASIC.
So far, ASIC has said it is not investigating the matter.
The improvement notices put on Heinemann Electric in Melbourne's Mulgrave related to workplace bullying, unsafe work practices and the absence of equipment or planing in case of a fire.
Heinemann refyses to pay $33,000 in owed wages to 54 employees, saying Federal laws do not permit them to pay workers undertaking industrial action.
The workers had placed a ban on overtime during enterprise agreement negotiations.
Electrical Trades Union organiser Shaun Leane said it was a clear case hypocrisy.
"They're claiming they can't pay workers because of Federal laws, while at the same time showing disregard for the state's OHS act," Leane said.
Leane said the company's safety breaches had put lives at risk.
He said putting switchboards together required barriers to contain an explosion. Heinemann was found to be using ropes.
"If they don't die because of the explosion, they'd die trying to get out of the place," Leane said.
Leane said anyone who wished to make a donation to help the Heinemann workers could contact the ETU Victorian office on 03 8341 5555.
For the first time, planes will be able to operate in Australia without meeting our strict guidelines, under Mutual Recognition legislation passed by the federal government this week.
The move - which allows New Zealand-registered planes to fly into Australia and also operate domestic routes without being issued an Air Operator Certificate here - is bad news for pilots, air crews and passengers, warns Peter Somerville of the Australian and International Pilots Association.
"The federal government is setting off down the path of abandoning
Australia's world-best safety regime and allowing the importation of lower
international standards," Somerville says.
Transport Minster Warren Truss has dismissed differences in safety regimes between Australia and New Zealand as 'details'. But their significance shouldn't be understated, says Somerville.
New Zealand airlines don't require the same number of cabin staff as Australian carriers and allow for different take-off speeds and passenger thresholds.
The armed air marshals used on Australian planes to boost security are banned from New Zealand-registered planes.
The long-term impact of this development will be the continuing downgrading of aviation safety, says Somerville.
"Historically Australian aviation safety has been the best in the world, we have gone beyond minimum international standards.
"Operators are looking to compete on cost and you can bet your bottom dollar as soon as New Zealand-registered planes are operating here with cost advantages obtained through lower safety standards, Australian operators will want the same."
The Mutual Recognition Act stems from the Closer Economic Relations pact between Australia and New Zealand.
"It puts marginal improvements in economic relations ahead of air safety," says Somerville.
The West led the charge to increase the 9% minimum, with UnionsWA secretary Dave Robinson calling for an additional 6% in super contributions.
Under the UnionsWA plan, employers would kick in an extra 3%, with individual workers making up the shortfall, to bring total contributions to 15%.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry let the cat out of the bag when a secret briefing paper was leaked this week.
The corporate cheerleaders voiced fears that the sweetened deal for MPs might stir inspire a push for a new community standard of 15.4%.
The chamber opposes any increase in employer contributions, with ACCI's Peter Hendy claiming it would be an additional tax on business.
Hendy's claims earned a withering rebuke today from the architect of the 1992 superannuation guarantee charge, ex-Prime Minister Paul Keating.
In a letter to the Financial Review, Keating described the ACCI as "nothing more than a branch office of the Liberal Party" and former Reith staffer Hendy as a "propagandist", dismissing his claims as "exaggerated" and "untrue".
Earlier during the week, Keating reminded television audiences of his 1996 election promise to increase contributions to 15%, by increasing contributions by 3% with the Government matching the rise dollar for dollar through a 3% tax cut paid directly into retirement savings.
"At 15 per cent with an average earnings rate of six per cent, you join the workforce at 20 and you retire at 60, you'd go out on about average weekly earnings," he said.
"But at nine per cent, if you joined it at 20 and retired at 60 you'd probably go out on 45 per cent of average weekly earnings.
"If (The Coalition) had agreed to do as they said at the '96 election and honour the tax cuts that I had proposed to pay as super, we would be now heading to $2 trillion of superannuation assets. That's $2,000 billion for 20 million of us.
"As it is, we are heading for $1,000 billion but of course no thanks to them," he said.
"Now, what the Treasurer is doing now is saying, 'Look, you can actually invest a million, a million bucks before July 2007 - if you're in a good enough position to invest a million.
"But if you're an ordinary wage plug, a battler - if you're a battler, we won't even let you save 15 per cent.' In other words - and we've lost a decade of saving."
The $6.5 million he earned in 2004-05 was down to a mere $5.3 million - perhaps fitting for a man in the midst of a cost-cutting frenzy.
Dixon is asking Qantas employees to share the pain of cutting $3 billion in spending by 2008 by accepting inferior wages and conditions and watching their jobs go offshore.
But Dixon's pay 'cut' is a sham. The $1.2 million he's down in incentive payments is dwarfed by a $7.7 million 'signing on fee' paid into his super last month for renewing his contract. And there's more.
A motion on the agenda of the October 19 annual meeting asks shareholders to vote a total of 900,000 Qantas shares to Dixon in equal tranches over the next three years.
That's an extra million dollars a year over the next three years.
If that's a pay cut, let's hope all Qantas employees suffer Dixon-style.
Be an Extra
Filming of 1998 Patrick Dispute
Event date: 16 September 2006
Location: Patrick, Port Botany
Time: 1.30pm
Filming of the ABC doco-drama mini-series Bastard Boys culminates at Port Botany tomorrow with the recreation of the 1998 Patrick Dispute 'community assembly'. This is the last day of the shoot and your last chance to be part of the remaking of history. The union is calling on all veterans of the dispute to help make the day as true to history as possible. Families and friends welcome.
Parking down at the Docks will be off Penrhyn Rd, Port Botany - it is the boat ramp car park at the end of Penrhyn Rd (right into Penrhy Rd from Foreshore Drive, past the Caltex terminal on your left, straight through the roundabout, still folllowing Penrhyn - carpark is at the end). We will then provide a shuttle from there to the location. A bus will leave the union rooms in Sussex Street at 12.30 pm for those needing transport from the city to Port Botany and back.
Sausage Sizzle 1.30-2.30pm
provided with soft drinks
Strictly no alcohol on location by order of Patrick.
Sydney Branch will be inviting anyone wishing to stay on after the shoot for drinks at a nearby venue.
Dress Casual. Please avoid any obvious brand names on clothing, shoes etc (other than MUA) or anything that would stand out as being post 1998.
Bring your T-Shirts and caps from the dispute. We have also extra replica MUA Here to Stay T shirts available on the day.
Make Life Fair Everywhere
September 20, Wednesday,
Union-Aid Abroad APHEDA Annual Dinner
6.30pm for 7pm start
Petersham RSL (7 Regent St)
More info: 02 9264 6343 or [email protected]
Rekindling the Flames of Discontent: How the Labour and Folk Movements Work Together
A Conference - Dinner - Concert
The Brisbane Labour History Association is holding a Conference/Dinner/Concert on Saturday 23 September. This event will explore the historical relationship between the labour movement and the folk movement in Australia with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
Why? To celebrate the history of the interaction between the Folk and Labour movements, and promote its longevity.
When? Saturday 23 September. Conference from 1pm. Concert from 7pm.
Where? East Brisbane Bowls Club, Lytton Rd, East Brisbane, Next to Mowbray Park
It is still in the formative stages, but to date the following are confirmed:
1-5pm CONFERENCE (will include music with the presentations):
Doug Eaton on John Manifold & the Communist Arts Group in Brisbane, Brisbane Realists
Bob & Margaret Fagan on Sydney Realist Writers
Mark Gregory on trade union & labour songs/music, nationally/internationally
Lachlan & Sue on international perspectives
5 - 7pm Drinks followed by DINNER
7 - 11pm CONCERT
Combined Unions Choir
Bob and Margaret Fagan
Mark Gregory
Jumping Fences
For more information contact the BLHA President Greg Mallory on [email protected], or Secretary Ted Reithmuller on [email protected], or Dale Jacobsen on [email protected]
Pope Talks IR
Monday 25 September 2006.
Brisbane Work and Industry Futures QUT, and the Department of Industrial Relations Griffith University are convening a one-day conference that explores Work, Industrial Relations and Popular Culture.
David Pope, the cartoonist behind the Heinrich Hinze cartoons will be Keynote Speaker with his presentation - "Is the pen mightier than s356? Cartoons and Work" (www.scratch.com.au)
We welcome any paper that explores the manner in which popular culture is used by unions, management or policy makers or alternatively, how work and industrial relations is represented within popular culture.
Sub-themes for the conference include: - Policy, Influence and Modern Mediums - Which is Reality, Work or TV? - Popular Music: Is it the End of the Working Class Man? - Working in the Movies: What do we see? - Popular Culture as a Teaching Tool. Call for Papers. Abstracts are due 14 July 2006 Full papers are due 11 September 2006 Location; Southbank, Brisbane.
The convenors would welcome participants to submit proposed titles earlier to assist in preparations. For further information please contact Keith Townsend ([email protected]) or David Peetz ([email protected])
I am genuinely disappointed about the concerted and clandestine efforts that have been used to oust British Prime Minister Tony Blair before the expiration of the term for which he was elected to be leader.
I thought the Poms had a greater capacity to appreciate talent. There is none comparable to Mr Blair in the Australian Labor Party. In the international arena Mr Blair's intelligent sincere and heartfelt contributions will be mightily missed by those of us who realise -it is not the meek but the mediocre who are getting to control the planet.
God help us all as those qualities that help to keep us civilized are rapidly being pulled asunder.
Kathryn Pollard, NSW
Within hours of Greg Combet unveiling the union proposal for enforceable bargaining rights the Prime Minister, his business boosters and his sponsors in the media were distorting the proposition for collective bargaining rights in the most perverted way.
The essence of this attack was the union proposition that a union member has a right to be represented by their union and that, if a majority of their workmates decide they want a collective agreement, the employer must bargain in good faith.
This proposition has three important elements all missing under Howard's IR laws.
First, the right to be represented by a union. Under Howard's laws union representation in bargaining is purely at the discretion of the employer. Workers can be hired on Awa's that exclude union representation - and this can be on a take the job or leave it basis.
Second, the right for a majority of workers, if they choose, to negotiate a collective agreement. Under Howard's laws it's up to the employer. One hundred per cent of the workforce can want a collective deal and if the employer doesn't want to play ball, forget it. Under the ACTU plan, union members have a right to be represented - and a right to ask fellow workers if they would like to join the collective.
Finally, good faith bargaining. Under Howard's laws an employer can just refuse to negotiate, wait for a current collective agreement to lapse and impose individual contracts that undermine the award.
And you wonder why the business community, and the Liberal Party which seems to hate unions more than it likes holding onto power, are working themselves into a lather.
The shrill response from the PM this week was that the ACTU proposition meant that if a union has a single member it can force a collective agreement on the workforce. What rot.
But the employer lobby and sections of the media that see their job as being to win the IR debate not to cover it, went into a lather. This was the greatest affront to democracy since Kim Beazley vowed to scrap AWAs.
This democracy line deserves a bit of scrutiny - because it goes to the heart of workplace bargaining rights.
The basic principle is that workers have a democratic right to bargain - the majority determines the form off the agreement and, ultimately, whether the agreement is accepted or not.
The PM and the employer lobby rejects this argument - on the basis that under this formula and individual worker would lose their democratic right to bargain individually.
But how can this be democracy? How can the will of one in the face of the majority have anything to do with democracy? Surely this is closer to the principles of anarchy - each to their own with no regard for the others.
Let's face it, For business, whose industrial imperative is to reduce labour costs - surely a disconnected anarchy of a workforce is a far better target than a strong democracy.
Like so much of the IR debate, the government is attempting to lie and confuse and call black white and night day, to convince people it has not done what it has done - to shift the power in the workplace to the employer.
Yes, the ACTU recommendations on bargaining are just a starting point in winning back the workplace. But given the reaction this week, they are step in the right direction.
Peter Lewis
Editor
The Defence Department recently awarded its 'garrison support' contract to multinational service company Serco Sodexho - which is insisting employees sign individual agreements if they want to keep their jobs.
Seventy-five cleaners at the Defence Department's Russell Offices want to negotiate a collective agreement.
"The majority of the cleaning staff at defence wants to be covered by a collective agreement and they are very unhappy with how the contract change has been handled," said Lyndal Ryan of the LHMU.
Serco Sodexho has backed away from the pay cuts of around $25 per week they were expecting cleaners to take under the new contract, said Ryan.
But the cleaners are still concerned the agreements threaten their job security.
The cleaners rallied outside the Defence Department this week, but failed to win any government support.
Howard told parliament he was aware of the cleaners' campaign, but backed Serco Sodexho's right to decide how to manage their business.
Serco Sodexho has only guaranteed current employees a job interview in the transition to the new contract.
The cleaners have enlisted the support of Bishop Pat Power, Labor Senator Kate Lundy and Macedonian community leader Steve Taskovski, who have requested a meeting with Serco Sodexho in support of the cleaners' campaign for a collective agreement.
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